title: Orthopaedic manifestations of systemic disease.
abstract: Nuclear medicine studies can be initiated to detect or evaluate systemic diseases such as inflammatory arthritis or Paget's disease. This is usually because of the strengths of nuclear medicine studies such as high sensitivity, an ability to easily image the whole body, and typical diagnostic patterns of abnormalities. In other instances, a systemic disease may be incidentally suggested by a scintigram such as osteoporosis or hyperparathyroidism; or a focal abnormality such as a vascular necrosis may be detected that should indicate a systemic condition should be sought. Although most nuclear medicine studies have high sensitivity for disease, specificity is often less and, for a particular scan abnormality, several conditions may have to be considered. Familiarity with the varying patterns of abnormality associated with different disease is therefore vital to correct assessment.
authors.affiliation: Medway Hospital, Gillingham, Kent, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D001168:Arthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001851:Bone Diseases, Metabolic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon